The Contribution of International Law to the Resolution of Self-Determination Conflicts

Michael van Walt van Praag is an Advisor on International Law and Conflict Management and Resolution and Adjunct Professor of Law, Golden Gate University School of Law. He is a Member of the Netherlands Development Assistance Research Council and Legal Advisor to the Office of His Holiness The Dalai Lama and to the Tibetan Government in Exile, and Special Counsel for United Nations Affairs. He holds a Doctorate in the Science of Jurisprudence and a Meester in de Rechten (J.D. and LL.M. equivalent) from Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht (Utrecht State University) and an LL.M. from Wayne State University School of Law in Michigan. Professor van Walt van Praag served as General secretary of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and Consultant for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). He was advisor to the Chechan Government Delegation in negotiations between the Chechen Republic and the Russian Federation as well as an Associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington D.C. and London. He is a member of the New York Bar and has published extensively in English, German Dutch and French, including "Self-Determination in a World of Conflict-A Source of Instability or Instrument of Peace?" (in Fetschrift: L. Bouchez, Kluwer Law); "Commentary to 'The Bell Curve of Ethnic Politics: Rise and Decline of Self-Determination Movements in India (by Atul Kohli)"' (in Self Determination and Self Administration: A Sourcebook, Lynne Reiner); "The Right to Self Determination and the De-Colonisation Process" (in Tibetan People 's Right of Self Determination, TPPRC and Friedrich-Naumann Foundation); and "A Concept of Nation in International Law" {book review, LEIDEN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, Vol. 6 No. 1).